Thread 22 : To feel disappointed - and now disgusted too - after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 21 IS FULL

The Observer's original exposé: The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

First thread: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet

Links to threads 2-16, the other 20 Observer articles and videos to date, Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement, our timeline and sources can all be accessed in the OP and first few posts of Thread 17: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5403285-thread-17-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Links to threads 18-20 can be found in the OP of Thread 21: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5460943-thread-21-to-feel-disappointed-and-now-disgusted-too-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Most recent:

• Salt Path: A Very British Scandal, available from Monday 15th December Sky Documentaries and NOW TV
• ‘Don’t look for the money. I’ve taken it all’: Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s ‘confession’ that she stole from her family | The Observer

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse are welcome. It would be helpful to get the background from at least some of the Observer exposé items before posting.
To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, and around the understandable health speculations, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Remember, even Hollywood rabbits attract the odd flea. Please do not engage with drive-by scolders and ploppers who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. Over 6 months we have done amazingly well together for 21 very interesting, very serious and very silly threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in our usual reasonable and respectful fashion is very welcome.

After 21,000 posts there are still new things to look out for on the path ahead:

• Observer Newsroom: The Real Salt Path Story, Thursday 8th January 2026 6.30-7.30pm. More information and to book via this link observer.co.uk/our-events/the-real-salt-path-story
• Podcast series from The Observer's award-winning Investigative Journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou, 13th January 2026
• BBC Podcast (NB Not involving Our Chloe)

Keep to the path, no saltiness, eat fudge and drink cider.

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 21 IS FULL

Is the full "confrssion" letter published somewhere?

I've only seen the redacted bits, the full thing being read on the podcast.

ALSO forgot to add: Chloe gives Mumsnet a shoutout in the episode!!! open.spotify.com/episode/0MMGv40iXJczFGV46yR0zJ?si=8c3a38f4c9104d54 Apparently this thread really helped her investigation which is pretty cool

With a very good shout out to us all here too! Thanks very much to Our Chloe for that.

ETA Cross-posted with @BySillyGoose

As i pointed out yesterday, which seems more like weeks ago given the current pace of the charabanc, if there was an investment in the early 1990s, it wasn't with the company of Cooper's that folded, because that company was founded in the late 90s.

So has Salray misdated it? Hard to do when she placed it between their sale of Forest Row and purchase of Pen y Maes which did happen in the early 90s.

Was the investment later on? If so, with what money?

Was the investment with a different company? If so, what has it got to do with the folded company whose liquidators SalTim tried to get to claim ownership of the loan?

Was there any investment? Probably not, but invented as part of a convoluted sob story to convince Sayray's sister from going to the police. It then likely grew legs for the plot of HNTDDD, then gained a body in LSB, coming out fully formed with the flailing head of Simon Armitage in TSP.

Great post @AllFrothNoMoth and thank you. Presumably the sale of the Forest Row house, which sounds very nice but was hardly Blenheim Palace, generated enough capital (can't see the mortgage would have been paid off) for them to 'invest' half the money and still have enough for a deposit on Pen Y Maes. It was the early 90s, although it would of course have been substantial money at the time to most people, we won't be talking hundreds of thousands, nowhere near what Salray stole, even allowing for inflation.

ETA I am very much of the 'invented sob story' school of thought.

Another possibility is Tim made up the investment story for whatever reason (maybe he lost it gambling or whatever shame he wanted to hide) and to this day Sally believes there was actually an investment. Isn't it curious that Tim is given the blame for the investment instead of both of them being responsible for it?

I have to say that I am on the charabanc because I want to see justice. So my question (for Our Chloe, for all of us) is 'what now?' What is the bottom line here?

Because if all this sleuthing and all Chloe's hard work is just going to be met with a shrug or, even worse, the publication of OWH to put more money into Sal's pocket - what has it all been FOR?

I would very much like to see SW being made to repay the £10,000 prize money from the Christopher Bland prize that she was awarded in 2019 (as it has now been shown beyond all possible doubt that TSP wasn't her first book and therefore she wasn't eligible for the prize).

To answer Anythingbutheadlands (as it's something I've wondered too), I’m interested because:

Personal experience of grifters: Yep, and a narcissist whose wife thinks she's won some kind of prize by hanging on to him, so I recognised the dynamic.
Personal experience of being lied to/controlled: Yep (see above).
Personal experience of chronic/debilitating disease: Yep. My chronic neurological illness is thankfully not degenerative, but my familiarity with tsp began with endless (well-intentioned) recommendations to read it and be inspired, further beating me with the 'it's your fault for not trying hard enough' stick.
Personal connection to homelessness and poverty: This too - having been on the street homeless (due to escaping the above narc) the descriptions of this element were literally unbelievable
Interest in walking/SW path: Yep, live in Cornwall and walked most of the SWCP over the years and now I can't because of the CHRONIC NEUROLOGICAL ILLNESS (sorry for shouting!)
Secretly fancy Moth/Simon A: Moth gives me the ick but I do have a soft spot for SA, preferably with his head and grumpy disposition intact

Not been on these threads for a while but have been following and wanted to say very well done to all you supersleuths, and thanks for your insights and humour.

@AnythingbutheadlandsI was very aware of the book(s), had seen a lot of coverage, had thought the whole house loss as described seemed iffy and unlikely. My reasons for being here started as a number of your suggestions but continued as others (and NO, I do not fancy Timoth, behave! 😂)

It has all become such an extraordinary thing, don't think we could have foreseen it. I do hope Our Chloe gets any and all journalism awards going for the pursuit of truth, which is a massive component of the profession, or it should be.

BTW Chloe, you won't be able to prove that the ghost of Charles II isn't talking to me from random foliage in my (soon to be concocted) book!

I had to have a lie down at the mere suggestion that she might be made to repay. I don't think she's EVER going to accept that she's done a single thing wrong though, and any money taken from her will be without her co operation. Maybe the CB committee could get an 'attachment to earnings' from her ongoing royalties?

There is now proof that she should never have had it (although I'm sure the award was made in innocence) @Vroomfondleswaistcoat and I do think the CB prize committee need to make some sort of statement acknowledging that.

Can't see them getting the prize money back, sadly.

I think she's already been removed from the prize winners' list, hasn't she? I just feel so angry on behalf of those authors entered in the competition that year who lost out - and it's not even a very well written book! That's another thing I don't get, all the people singing the praises of some, at best very averagely-written, books!

Fan me down with the fudge wrappers, someone...

@Uricon2 : but your post is the equivalent of a letter of confession!

Vroom: she is still on the list.

https://rsliterature.org/rsl-christopher-bland-prize/#:~:text=RSL%20Christopher%20Bland%20Prize&text=An%20annual%20award%20of%20%C2%A310%2C000%20for%20a,aged%2050%20or%20over.%20The%202026%20Prize.

No, no no. I am an innocent and pure soul ( cf HNTDDD) who definitely has a direct connection to long dead kings. To say otherwise is grotesquely unfair, highly misleading (etc) ( cf the first statement)

Frankly, I think this daftness might really be more plausible than TSP et al. Less damaging, anyway.

Some very important outcomes there that we can all agree on that need to happen. Penguin to STOP as of now, all sales pitches that refer to these books as non fiction and honest. Booksellers, please take note and do the same. Ask permission from previous reviewers if they still allow their reviews to be published on the covers and first pages. A lot of the original reviews refer to things which have been told as fact and are irrelevant to the standard of the writing itself. Month’s illness and the loss of their home for instance.
Move this material away from categories such as nature, walking, autobiography, memoir and put it in the alphabetically ordered fiction. Do not allow real memoirs to be sullied by Sally.
Christopher Bland prize. Someone in the PR of this should make a statement that the prize was unfairly awarded and apologise to the authors who lost out because of this. Make it public and loud.

I am still here @Anythingbutheadlands because I bought the books and felt such real compassion for them. The real story gets worse and worse and I find myself angry at the injustice. The true story is mind boggling. The posters in this charabanc are intelligent, articulate, humorous and wonderful company. I thoroughly enjoy reading everyone’s posts and appreciate the time and energy that they invest in writing them.
I also bought the books because Kernow is home and I was excited to share their journey in that respect. I wasn’t too pleased about some depictions and shrugged it off (as mentioned previously) but other things I could very much relate to, the simple things that I personally enjoy about being out in the elements rain or shine, storm or calm etc I’m a painter of landscapes and am always delighting in flora, fauna, wildlife, cloudscapes and light itself changing everything. I feel a sadness that the things in her books which I liked, were spoken by somebody who isn’t worthy. She was welcomed and made much of and didn’t deserve it. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong but it’s a feeling. Cosplaying is the perfect word for what they did.

I do love the works of Simon Armitage, Angela Harding and of course Our Chloe.

I thought this interview of Chloe H by James O'Brien was really good - only disappointment is Chloe saying at the end that she's moving on to other things! James asks great questions & Chloe does an excellent summary of why this is an important and interesting story.

@Anythingbutheadlands
I’d like to see the Walkers pay back every penny of the money they stole from relatives and wheedled out of god knows how many other people, plus a full apology and acknowledgment that all the basic premises of the Salt Path book were untrue (I’m getting a strange feeling that this is a vain hope however!).

Second, I’d like to see an end to all this waffle about blurring the lines between fact and fiction, and that it is acceptable to sell readers a book classified as ‘non-fiction’ when all the basic ‘facts’ are made up or distorted, often at the expense of real people with real lives and reputations. This is why I got interested in this saga in the first place, and I also think it’s long past time the publishers stopped hiding and spoke up with an explanation. A ‘memoir’ is not a novel, it’s a description of real events, albeit subjective, and readers have a right to expect it to be an honest account of the writer’s experience.

Episode 6 spoiler alert.

I've only just caught up with you all, I've been busy taking all last night's empties back, such interesting posts from everyone, lovely sentiments about the charabanc posters @HatStickBoots, I watched all the episodes yesterday and it left my head spinning, well done Chloe. I don't know how reliable I will be, labelling spoiler alerts, lots of things that stood out for me, have already been noted by others.

Extra snippet, not only did Salray pretend to be hearing voices to avoid Tim's mum's questioning, she shut herself in the cupboard!

I think Our Chloe should write a book. She can market it as:
"unflinchingly honest" and a "true story" of resilience of the victims of TSP scam...

Hand up who thinks she should submit it to Penguin first?

Ep. 5 -I have just heard that bit!

I've already held you responsible for me getting mixed up earlier - when you said 'Listening'....

So funny @MargaretThursday, PRH might find themselves with a deluge of manuscripts from all sorts now :)
Oh no, what did I do last night @BeaveringBrandy, I have no relocation, if mistakes were made, have I just made another one?

Oops wrong post quoted!